Improvement in hair-switches



ANNIE' R. SMITH.

- HAIR-SWITCH.

Patented Nov. 30, 1875.

.M g a M UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANNIE B. SMITH, OF GEDDES, ASSIGNOB OF ONE-HALF HER RIGHT TO ALVAH SWEETLAND, OF MEMPHIS, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN HAlR-SWITCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 170,497, dated November 30, 1875; application filed February 5, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANNIE B. SMITH, of Geddes, in the county of Onondaga, in the State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Human-Hair Switches, Curls, 850., of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, is a full, clear, and

exact description.

The object of this invention is to save labor, time, and hair in the manufacture of humanhair switches, curls, puffs, frizzes, and similar articles, and at the same time produce an article in every respect superior to those manufactured by the old process; and it consists in sewing the hair at the ends, and working it into strands, as hereinafter described.

In the drawing, Figure 1 shows my invention in four stages of the process. The hair, after being prepared in the ordinary way, is spread out, as shown at A A, and in this condition passed through a sewing-machine as readily as a piece ofcloth by placing the hand upon it close to the part to be sewed, and thus stitched in two or more rows, as represented at A. After this the sewed endis doubled and again sewed, giving it the appearance shown at B. By again doubling this in the center, and sewing it as before, it receives the shape represented at (L'which fastens the hair in a neat, mostthorough, and complete manner, with a very small consumption of the length of the hair. The doubling of the sewed end is better seen in Fig. 2, where A B, and C are end views of the three last stages of the process. worked into strands by twisting and sewing it, as shown in Fig. 3, and from these strands This being complete, the hair is readilyswitches' and similar articles are manufactured in the ordinary way.

' A comparison of this improved process with the old will show to any one of ordinary experience and judgment that I produce a better article with a great saving of time, labor, and hair, and that I can use shorter hair than can be'worked by the old process of weaving or braiding the hair on cords. Sewing human hair in this manner and for this purpose has never been attempted before this.

What I claim as my invention is 1. The process of heading hair for switches and other similar articles for personal wear, consisting, essentially, in first spreading out the hair, as shown at A, in the drawing; then sewing it in two or more rows of stitching, as

at A and then doubling the hair and sewing it,'as at B, and again doubling it in the center and sewing as before, by which it is brought into the form represented at O, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2; As a new article of manufacture, a hairswitch or similar article for personal wear,

' MRS. ANNIE B. SMITH. [L. s.]

Witnesses:

O. S. PHARIS, CHAS. H.- HEY. 

